When to Study

• Start preparing for your exams the first day of the class. Do this by looking over the syllabus carefully, finding out when the exams will be, how many exams there will be and how much will they be weighed into your grade.
• Plan reviews as part of your regular weekly schedule. This allows you to review over the whole quarter rather than just during exam time.
• Read over your lecture notes and ask yourself questions on the material that you don't know well. If your notes are relatively complete and well organized, you will find that very little rereading of the textbooks for detail is necessary.
• Review for several short periods rather than just one long study session. You will find that you gain more information and feel less fatigued.
• Turn the main points of each chapter into questions and check to see if the answers come easily to you.
• Flashcards are a helpful way to review for classes that have many unfamiliar terms. Review the cards in a random order using only those terms that you have difficulty remembering.

During the Test

• Read the directions carefully! Points can be lost if you don't follow the directions.
• Look through the test to see how much time you will need for each section.
• Do a memory data dump. Write down information you may forget such as formulas, dates, places, etc.
• Work on the easiest parts first. If your strength is essay questions, answer those first to get the maximum points.
• Save time at the end of the exam to review your test and make sure you haven't left out any answers or parts of answers. You want to use all of the time you are given for the test.

After the Test

• Attend the review of the exam (if there is one). This can help reinforce the information one more time in your long-term memory. It also gives you an opportunity to hear what the professor was looking for in the answer. This will be helpful towards your next exam.

Tips for Taking Multiple Choice Tests

• As you read the question, anticipate the answer if you can before the options. If the answer you anticipated is among the options, it is likely to be correct.
• Learn how to quickly eliminate options that are highly implausible. Many questions usually only have two plausible options. You want to be able to recognize the implausible ones quickly and discard them.
• Be aware that some information that is relevant to one question is sometimes given away in another test item.
• Options that represent broad, sweeping generalizations tend to be incorrect. You should be cautious of words such as always, never, only, must, totally, etc. These create improbable assertions.

Tips for Taking Essay Tests

• Time is a big factor in taking Essay tests. Start by looking through the entire exam and distributing your time according to your knowledge. It is always good to answer the questions that you know the best first.
• Make sure to take time to get organized. If the professor can not follow where you are going with the answers, you won't get many points. It may be a good idea to use headings or even number the points you are making.
• The trick to essay writing is being concise while being complete. Get right to the point, but never pad your answer. Avoid writing in shorthand it may cause you to leave important points out.
• In many courses you will learn jargon or technical terminology. Use this language in your vocabulary on the test to demonstrate your learning